More Important Than Money …

When former President Reagan was first diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, he released a poignant, handwritten letter announcing that he was embarking on “the journey that will lead me into the sunset of my life.”

He said “I intend to live the remainder of the years God gives me on this Earth doing the things I have always done.”

And for a while, he did just that. But not for long – as time ticked by, he sank into a sad decline.

This past Friday, AP writers Michael R. Blood and John Rogers recounted the memories of friends and family who witnessed it:

In the early years of the disease, said one, he would start to tell a joke, would get halfway through it, and then just couldn’t finish it.

His doctors encouraged him to exercise, but when he was on the golf course, he gradually grew disoriented, even as he kept on smiling. They’d get the ball teed up for him, going to the green, but sometimes he didn’t know which direction the hole was. His fellow players all loved him so much, they didn’t mind.

Until a few years ago, Nancy Reagan often tried to surround him with familiar faces in the hope of reviving some remembrances. However, one former White House adviser who went to meet him said, “he just sat there.”

Then as the visit was ending, the adviser stood next to the president by his desk, while the president pointed to a picture of his mother, saying “That’s my mother.”

“Well Mr. President,” the adviser responded, “we’re involved in this campaign now, and we’re just going to win one more for the Gipper.”

Reagan’s eyes brightened up momentarily and he uttered just two words: “All right.” It was a momentary remnant of a distant memory.

In 1999, Reagan’s biographer reported he was still strong enough to rake leaves from the family pool. He would do it for hours, oblivious to the fact that the leaves were being thrown back into the pool behind him by his Secret Service men.

In a March 2001 interview with Larry King, Nancy Reagan said she no longer allowed visitors to see her husband – and even she could not reach him any more. “I think Ronnie would want people to remember him as he was,” she said.

Finally, not long ago, a former Secret Service agent recalled Reagan’s childlike joy when a Labrador retriever took a dunk in the pool, then shook the water off. “It splashed all over the president, and he laughed and laughed,” the agent said. “That was the last time I saw him laugh.”

THE ALZHEIMER’S EPIDEMIC

Charlton Heston, best known for his roles as a biblical hero in films like “Ben-Hur” and the “The Ten Commandments,” was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in 2002.

“I can part the Red Sea,” he said to fans and friends, “but I can’t part with you, which is why I won’t exclude you from this stage in my life. … If you see a little less spring to my step, if your name fails to leap to my lips, you’ll know why.”

Rita Hayworth, who starred in dozens of Hollywood hits, began to have trouble remembering her lines when she entered her forties. She was also diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and was cared for by her daughter until she died in 1987.

Jonathan Swift, the author of Gulliver’s Travels … Barry Goldwater, the former Senator from Arizona … the singer Perry Como … and the prize fighter Sugar Ray Robinson – all are said to have died of Alzheimer’s.

In my family, two aunts have been stricken. We’re not certain yet, but we’re afraid two of Elisabeth’s aunts may also have the disease.

One in ten Americans has a victim in the family; one in three knows someone who has the disease. All told, there are 4.5 million Americans with Alzheimer’s, more than double the number when President Reagan was elected to his first term. By the middle of the century, there will be close to 15 million.

THE THREAT TO MEDICARE

The other day I had lunch with Congressman Clay Shaw, Chairman of the House Social Security Subcommittee and a senior member of the Ways and Means Committee.

He said he has a solution for the Social Security crisis. But he frankly admitted he has no solution for the looming Medicare disaster. It’s beyond repair.

The single most obvious culprit: Alzheimer’s.

Indeed, last year, the President of the Alzheimer’s Association warned that Congress and the President cannot save Medicare and Medicaid unless and until they get Alzheimer’s under control. His words:

“You will not – you cannot – balance federal and state budgets if you let Alzheimer’s disease continue on its present course.”

Right now, the average cost of caring for each of the 4.5 million victims is $170,000. But as the number of victims and the costs for each continue to soar, the total costs grow geometrically. Just six years from today …

* The yearly Medicare cost for beneficiaries with Alzheimer’s will jump by about 54 percent to over $49 billion …

* Medicaid costs for residential care of Alzheimer’s patients will surge by 80% to $33 billion, and …

* American businesses will probably be spending (or losing) close to $100 billion per year – all due to Alzheimer’s.

Alzheimer’s is not only corroding the memory of its victims bit by bit, it’s also eroding our entire health care system year after year … threatening to destroy Medicare … leaving millions without money … and millions more without care.

It’s an epidemic of unprecedented human and financial costs.

A KNOCK-OUT BLOW TO THE BUDGET

Even without future Medicare and Medicaid deficits, the federal budget deficit is already out of control – about $500 billion based on official estimates, close to $1 trillion if you remove all the smoke and mirrors.

Now, add Medicare and Medicaid spending, and you will see how the ballooning costs deliver a smashing, knock-out blow to the budget. To see exactly what I’m talking about with your own eyes, follow these steps:

– Twenty years later, they represented 9% – significant, but still the smallest category overall.

– Today, Medicare and Medicaid are 19% of the budget – more than interest, and NEARLY AS MUCH AS THE ENTIRE DEFENSE BUDGET. But this is even before the expected explosion in health costs for Alzheimer’s and other diseases.

6. At the top of your screen, there are six buttons. Click on the third one (the single arrow pointing to the right). Then click on it a second time.

7. You should come to a multi-colored bar chart entitled “Composition of federal spending as a share of GDP …”

NOW look at the red sections (still representing Medicare and Medicaid) and see how they grow dramatically in size in the years ahead. By 2030, they emerge as the single largest budget category, overwhelming ALL others.

8. If you have time, view the rest of the presentation, and brace yourself for even greater shocks.

It’s a national disaster in the making – the ultimate collision between health and wealth. And the mushrooming cost of Alzheimer’s plays a VERY significant role.

This collision, along with the Alzheimer’s epidemic itself, MUST be averted. But how?

AN URGENT SEARCH FOR CAUSES

The first priority, in my view, is to find the underlying causes of Alzheimer’s and other diseases that are helping to drive health care costs through the roof.

Does Alzheimer’s have something to do with the fact that we live longer than we used to? Maybe. But researchers are beginning to discover that the illness probably starts long before old age, possibly even in childhood.

They’re beginning to question if the same factors that lead to heart disease from a young age may also be setting the stage for Alzheimer’s.

It seems they’ve also discovered – in autopsies of people who died young – that many already had the plaques, tangles and dead brain cells characteristic of Alzheimer’s.

Clearly, there’s something else going on here, and we must find it – urgently. Each dollar spent today on finding a cure could save hundreds of thousands in the costs of care. And each dollar spent on finding the real causes – plus some simple preventative measures – will yield even better results …

IN THE MEMORY OF MY PARENTS

My mother was born in 1906, in Woodbine, New Jersey.

Five years later, her father, a volunteer fireman, got an emergency call in the middle of the night, grabbed his fire uniform and rushed out the door. Once downtown, he discovered that the building on fire was his own brother’s warehouse. So he made an extra, valiant effort to put it out. But he never returned.

Mom was traumatized, and as soon as she was old enough to think for herself, she decided that life and all living things were precious. So at an early age, she refused to eat meat or use any product made from animals. For the rest of her life, she never veered from that philosophy.

Dad, born in New York City in 1908, had a different experience with a similar result. He grew up in the upper East Side, across the street from a candy store. His diet was mostly candy and junk food.

By age 10, he was skinny and weak, plagued by ear infections which were so bad, doctors had to remove a part of his mastoid bone. The ear infections were then followed by boils all over his body – so uncomfortable he could barely sit down.

Dad was desperate for answers. One summer, his older brother brought home a book entitled Physical Culture by Bernard McFadden, and he read it avidly. Soon thereafter, he started eating strictly fruits, vegetables, legumes, and nuts.

This was Harlem in the 1920s, where such habits were virtually unknown. His friends in school laughed at him. His neighbors said he was a kook. But his boils disappeared, and he began doing gymnastics.

A few months later, to their mother’s great distress, the two brothers were doing handstands on the edge of the roof of their five-story tenement building. And a few years later, Dad became an amateur boxer in the Golden Gloves tournaments.

No one was laughing any more. And Dad stuck to the same habits of daily exercise and healthy diet until the day he died.

I recognize the statistical peril of connecting the dots between my parents’ lifestyle in their youth and their nearly disease-free life over the years. But in all my lifetime, I have rarely known anyone – young or old – who was as sharp or as healthy as my parents in their old age.

Long after she “retired,” Mom continued to proofread my Safe Money Report. Every Saturday afternoon following our Friday mail-outs, she’d pick up the issue in her mail box and call me complaining about some spelling or punctuation error that she delighted in catching, even after it was in print.

Dad stayed active even longer. Unfortunately, though, a few years before he passed away, he began to suffer from macular degeneration and lost his ability to read stock market charts or look up phone numbers. So we all thought his career was over.

But he fooled us. He hired a special assistant to read him all his important phone numbers until he committed them to memory. Another assistant read him the stock and bond market stats each morning, which he’d then use to visualize the charts in his mind’s eye.

Whenever anyone in the office needed figures or facts – current or historic – we’d go to Dad. He was our walking encyclopedia.

ALZHEIMER’S AND LIFESYTLE

I’m sure there’s also a genetic component to Alzheimer’s – not to mention factors unrelated to diet or exercise that scientists are just beginning to explore. But I’m not the only one drawing a connection between the disease and lifestyle habits.

Some claim that the primary cause of Alzheimer’s is monosodium glutamate (MSG), other glutamates, aspartame, and similar chemicals added to processed foods that are regularly eaten by babies, children, adults, and the aged.

A new book “Dying for a Hamburger: Modern Meat Processing and the Epidemic of Alzheimer’s Disease,” written by Toronto coroner Dr. Murray Waldman blames chemicals in hamburgers.

Still others connect Alzheimer’s to the same complex of syndromes that is now linked to cardiovascular illnesses -high-fat or high-carb diets.

Dad himself had a theory about the disease. “It can’t be just old age because old age is not a disease. It can’t be just genetic, because genes are merely a predisposition, not a cause. So it must be some chemicals we’re eating or ingesting that somehow causes an interruption in the synapses in our brain.”

But, unfortunately, hard evidence to support these theories is sparse. And according to the Alzheimer’s Association, we’re quickly running out of time.

A PERSONAL NOTE

I can’t tell you what to do. But I CAN tell you what I’m doing about it myself.

First, to help avoid Alzheimer’s, I’m not waiting around for research scientists to find a smoking gun. Instead, I’m living under the assumption that my parents knew what they were doing and my Dad’s theory was essentially sound.

Like Dad, I exercise vigorously one hour per day, six days a week.

Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, I go to the Stayin’ Alive gym for an hour with Vince, my personal trainer, who’s pretty tough. Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, I go to the Palm Beach Gardens Community pool for an hour with Lisa, my swim coach. She’s even tougher. Sunday I rest. Or I research the facts for “Martin on Monday,” like I did yesterday.

With my diet, I’m not as strict as my parents were. But I think they’d still be proud.

Second, for my own money, I’m not waiting for a fiscal crisis to strike before seeking protection. I’m staying safe and liquid right now.

The stock market and the economy may look good at the moment, but behind the scenes a volcanic eruption in interest rates is in the making – driven by the obviously obese deficits, and the equally obvious rise in inflation.

Just two and a half weeks from now, the Federal Reserve will announce its first interest-rate hike in years, lifting the lid on a pressure cooker that has been building up for many months.

So don’t be impatient with the low yield you get right now on short-term Treasuries or money markets. It won’t last much longer.

Third, I’m reviving my father’s Sound Dollar Committee with the goal of helping to avert a national fiscal crisis. In future e-mails, I’ll tell you how you can participate.

Overall, I hope that you, too, have found some time and willpower to take protective steps. If not, it’s never too late to begin.

I think we have a real battle ahead – some rough years in the economy that are inevitably going to follow on the heels of the shaky prosperity that now seems to prevail. To cope, I am convinced that health will be more important than money.